High efficiency H₂O/LiBr double effect absorption cycles with multi-heat sources for tri-generation application

The objective of this study is to develop a high-efficiency double effect absorption cycle using multi-heat sources for tri-generation (trigen) application. The trigen system produces electricity, heating and cooling loads at the same time. The double-effect absorption refrigeration system consists of two generators, condensers, solution heat exchangers, expansion valves, an absorber and an evaporator. The cycle simulation is carried out for the H₂O/LiBr double effect absorption cycle with multi-heat sources for parallel, serial, reverse, revised serial and revised reverse flow patterns. The absorption refrigeration system uses the high temperature steam and hot water as the multi-heat sources. A new high-efficiency cycle is selected depending on the arrangements of additional heat exchangers. This study recommends HX 2-2 cycle with two additional heat exchangers (SDHHX and DHX) as the best candidate for trigen application. It is concluded that T_Hotwater has much more significant effect on the COP and Q̇_E than T_steam in the HX 2-2 cycle. It is also found that the most important UA to affect the COP is UA_LG while that to affect Q̇_E is UA_A.